Chapter 19 - Cover My Back.
BOOOM!!!
Nel'Vass fell from the sky akin to a meteor amidst the summoned mounts. Arthur and the rest were forced to reflexively shield their heads as they got hurled in different directions from the powerful shockwave!
Timber, rocks, dirt, mud, everything was launched at a terrifying speed after them, bombarding them mid-flight!
Despite the sudden assault and pain, Arthur instinctively twisted in midair, causing Levi to take the hit on his back...But it spared him from crashing into the solid trunk of an oak tree.
Thuuud!!
Arthur flexed his muscles to the best of his ability, but the force was strong enough that it still knocked the air out of his chest.
As he fell to the ground, his bloodshot eyes protruded from their sockets while his mouth was wide open. Saliva coming out uncontrollably, but no air was coming in.
Just sharp exhales as he held onto his stomach tightly.
"Arthur!"
As Levi heard his brother's dry gasps, he completely forgot the scorching pain on his back after the bombardment.
He placed his hand on his brother's chest and started telling him to breathe slowly while massaging it, knowing that it wouldn't help much.
Meanwhile, Shia, Jamal, and Sergio had it better than them as the moment they were hit by the shockwave, each one used their defensive innate abilities to protect themselves.
Shia surrounded herself with crystallized blood armor, Jamal utilized a skin-tight spiritual barrier, and lastly, Sergio's fatty skin hardened into rocks.
They immediately recovered and entered a protective formation, putting Arthur and Levi in its center.
When Shia saw what happened to them, her expression turned bloodthirsty.
"Boys, are you alright?"
Arthur made an 'okay' gesture with his hand while taking deep breaths, appearing like he was about to die at any second.
"Don't mind us and focus on him! He must be a Tier 3 nightcrawler." Levi warned solemnly as he gazed at the terrifying spiritual gray aura in front of him.
He had learned a long ago that the intensity of spiritual auras defined the tier/rank of a nightcrawler or any of the Walkers.
He used a simple technique to figure out a nightcrawler's tier: If it was weak and fable, it must be a Tier 1 nightcrawler.
If it was intense but contained in the figure, it must be a Tier 3 nightcrawler. If it was in between, neither strong nor weak, it belonged to a Tier 2 nightcrawler.
As for the rest of the high-tiered Nightcrawlers? He had only seen upper-ranked daywalkers' spiritual auras, and it was always wild or contained to perfection.
When Shia and the rest heard that they might be dealing with a Tier 3 nightcrawler, their shoulders tensed up while eyeing the cloud of dust in front.
Nel'Vass' wavy shadow reflected behind the dusty cloud. He lifted his hands slowly and then, with a single clap, the dusty cloud was cleared out, exposing an unsightly scene.
The white-feathered eagle, the shadowy horse, and the blue-furred wolf were lying in a puddle of blood, torn flesh, and guts spilling everywhere...
Not a single twitch was spotted...They were utterly decimated inside a massive crater created by Nel'Vass.
"Sadly, you little children ain't going anywhere," Nel'Vass said casually while stretching his shoulder.
"Mira..."
Shia ignored him, her crimson-red eyes were affixed on the brutal state of her dearest mount.
She didn't need to hear her heartbeats to know that Mira was gone. The moment she died, the contractual link between them was cut off, causing the inked tattoo on her back to erase itself.
This happened to Sergio and Jamal as well, leaving their expression to turn gloomy.
"Sergio, Jamal, keep the brothers safe and buy me some time." Shia uttered coldly while walking towards Nel'Vass, holding her crescent-bladed glaive with both hands.
Seeing her current state, Sergio and Jamal knew that she was about to go all out. While they didn't know if it would be enough to deal with such a terrifying Tier 3 nightcrawler, they could only put their trust in her and fulfill their part.
"Jamal, cover my back."
Sergio extended his arm to the side, summoning a petrified cracked stone mace with a gleaming green light.
The moment he tightened his grip on it, his skin started turning into rock as well like he was touched by the curse of Medusa.
The transformation didn't stop until his entire body was armored from top to bottom with a rocky skin, leaving only his eyes.
Though he looked like a statue carved from stone, his movement was smooth as he swung his mace and rested it on his shoulder.
Then, without an ounce of hesitation, Sergio charged toward the spiders' army on his own, desiring to intercept them before they could get close and pincer his party!
"Sergio..."
Levi murmured as he watched Sergio's minuscule aura rushing toward an ocean of damnation...
Although he was giving him sh*t from the moment they met, Levi never took it to heart as he could tell that Sergio was simply a distrustful person.
Whether he was blind or not had nothing to do with his behavior since his brother had been taking the same sh*t from him.
But with time, his bad attitude lessened, and he started treating them as true members of his party after realizing that they were quite reliable even for citizens.
Rustle! Rustle!...
The moment the spiders finished feasting on the Growth totems and Luminus snacks, they switched their attention to the closest heat signal to them.
They saw only Shia, Levi, Arthur, Jamal, and Nel'Vess. Just as they let out an ear-piercing screech and tried to kickstart their chase, a deep rough voice resounded in their ears.
"Dark Stone Arts: Petrifying Touch."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The armored titan charged right through the biggest group of spiders and started smashing his mace barbarically!
Each blow didn't just brutally blow up a spider, but tainted it with a green light that caused its exoskeleton to get petrified into stone!
The broken-off cursed limps and other body parts were sent flying everywhere, spreading the curse to anything they touched!
This created great chaos amidst the army of spiders as all of them tried to attack and bite off Sergio, uncaring about the petrification curse. But Sergio knew what he was doing.
His armored body protected him from the spiders' bites, their long sharp fangs merely grazing against the stoned skin!
Yet, the spiders were absolutely relentless, jumping one after another like they were part of a suicide mission.
Although the petrification curse and Sergio's constant swinging were causing great damage, in the end, he found himself buried under a mountain of spiders.
This hindered his movement greatly, making it extremely difficult to swing his mace. Just when it looked like he would be buried to death, a piercing spiritual arrow appeared out of nowhere and penetrated the mountain of spiders!
Kaboom!
The following shockwave hurled all the spiders away, freeing Sergio at last. He glanced once in Jamal's direction and told him to keep them coming while he charged back to chaos!
"So strong..."
Arthur watched with a widened mouth at the duo's powerful synergy, having no idea how to react. They did nothing but repeat the process over and over again, yet, it was enough to keep an army of spiders busy.
"They won't be able to keep this for long."
On the other hand, Levi's expression was as grim as it could be. While he had no idea what was Sergio doing to keep the spiders occupied without dying, he knew it must be consuming an insane amount of solar energy.
Usually, this wouldn't be much of a problem since most Daywalkers packed a generous amount of Growth Totems to refuel their Shadowlife seeds when their stored solar energy was exhausted. However, they had just wasted all of them for nothing.
It was even worse for Jamal as his abilities were utilizing spiritual energy, which was a much more difficult source of energy to refuel.
In other words, it was just a matter of time before Sergio's armor collapsed and Jamal started firing blank arrows.
But, they were told to buy time for Shia, and they would do it even if they collapsed in the process.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Meanwhile, Shia and Nel'Vess weren't sitting idle. They were already trading blows tens of meters away from Levi.
Somehow, Shia was matching up amazingly against Nel'Vess even though she was still a Junior Daywalker.
'How strong, no wonder none of the ambushes worked.'
Nel'Vess raised an eyebrow as he blocked the crescent blade with his right arm. While he wasn't cut or even scratched, he could feel the potent force behind the swing.
'My normal attacks are doing nothing to him.' Shia narrowed her eyes, 'Blee'der, we have to use it.'
'Go for it, I have collected a decent amount of blood.' Blee'der smiled coldly.
The moment she received his approval, Shia bounced away from Nel'Vess and brought her crescent blade near her wrist. Then, she sliced the vein under Nel'Vess' startled look, causing a fountain of blood to spew everywhere.
Uncaring about everyone's stunned looks, Shia brought her wrist to her lips and started drinking her blood, causing her eyes to turn completely red and her heartbeats to accelerate beyond the human norm.
The moment her vision turned bright red with only Nel'Vess in sight, Shia wiped her lips with the right sleeve, smearing her cheek red.
Then, she dropped the weapon's shaft and held her crescent blade from a small handle in the center.
"I am about to get close and intimate." Shia showed a sinister grin as she uttered, "Mantra Blood Arts: Blood Frenzy."